Spiral conveyer.



No. 891,514. PATENTED JUNE. 23, 1908.

G. P. WISDOM.

SPIRAL GONVEYBR.

APPLICATION FILED 00117. 1901.

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G. P. WISDOM. SPIRAL GONVBYER.

APPLICATION FILED 00117, 1907.

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No. 891,514. PATENTED JUNE 23, 1908.

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' SPIRAL GONVEYER. APPIQIOAIION FILED 0QT.1'I. 1907.

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In: uonms PETERS ca.,'wnsm|vnron. n. c.

UNITED STATES.

PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE WISDOM, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR, BY MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, TO MARTIN O. SOHWAB, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

SPIRAL CONVEYER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented -Tune 23, I908.

Application filed. October 17, 1907. Serial No. 397,899.

T 0 all whom it may concern: Be it known that I, GEORGE P. WIsDOM, a citizen of the United States, residing at Manhattan Building, Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Spiral Conveyers, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to certain new and useful improvements in spiral conveyers and is fully described and explained in the speci fication and shown in the accompanying drawing, in which:

Figure l is an elevation of my improved conveyer, the electrical circuit being shown diagrammatically; Fig. 2 is a perspective View of one of the stations of the conveyer, a portion of the outer casing being broken away to show the interior construction; Fig. 3 is a horizontal section in the line 3 of Fig. 1; Fi 4 is a horizontal section in the line 4 of %ig. 1; Fig. 5 is a top plan of the brake mechanism; Fig. 6 is a side elevation of the same.

Referring to the drawings A is a cylindrical outer casing of ordinary form and within that said casing is a spiral slide-way A of sheet metal or the like the same being in general of the form commonly used in spiral conveyers. The slide-way of my conveyer, however, is made a variable pitch as illustrated in the drawing, the pitch of the spiral being much less above and at the level of the discharge doors than it is higher up. That is to say, after passing any floor or opening where material may enter, the spiral has a very steep pitch until just before it reaches an opening where material can be ejected and at such point the itch of the spiral is greatly decreased as il ustrated. The purpose and mode of operation of this variable pitch spiral will presently be explained.

The conveyer herein illustrated, which is typical of my invention, to a building having four stories. These stories will in practice be ordinarily the upper floor used as a stock room from which goods are supplied to the various lower floors excepting the lowest of the series, two or more intermediate floors usually used as sales rooms (two intermediate floorsbeing used in this case) and a lower floor (usually the basement) which is used as a shipping room. Under ordinary circumstances in stores (where spiral conveyors find their is shown as applied greatest sphere of usefulness) the stock is distributed from the upper floor downward to the intermediate floors where it is sold and wrapped. The wrapped packages are sent from these floors to the basement. There are certain circumstances, however, when it may be desirable to ship from one intermediate floor to another and means is provided for this purpose although the same can be dispensed with if desired.

It will be obvious that no special door arrangement will be necessary or desirable at i the upper end of the chute, any kind of an opening through which goods can be placed upon the slide-way being quite sufficient at this floor. In the drawings the slide-way is shown as running to the top of the chute which is left open to receive goods. Similarly at the lower floor no special arrangement is necessary, the only action that takes lace being the ejection of the packages.

or this reason the outer tube of the conveyer is simply perforated at its lower end and a spiral slide terminates at said perforation so that the acka es can pass outward. At the intermediate doors, however, some special arrangement is obviously necessary I to afford means for the ingress and egress of packages and such means must be sufficiently under controlfrom stories above the stories at which'they are located to permit or past them.

Outlet doors B are provided at the various stories as illustrated the same being slightly above the level of the floors and connected to discharge slides down which the packages passing from said doors can slide. The said discharge doors B are movable vertically in suitable guides provided to receive them on the tubular casing A, the construction of the said guides being clearly illustrated in the sectional view (Fig. 3). It will be seen that these doors are so arranged that they lie flush with the inner face of the tube so that no shoulder is formed against which the packages can strike in passing, so as to be damaged thereby. At the lower lateral edge of each discharge door B is located a radially disposed vertically movable stop-plate O. The stop-plates O are guided between channel guides mounted in the outer casing A and in a central strengthening post running along the inner edge of the slide-way A The discharge doors and the corresponding stopplates are for convenience made of substantially the same size and weight so that one may serve as a counter-balance for the other and the same are connected by ropes or cables 0 which pass up from the discharge doors B over guide sheaves c 0 and over and around a drum 0 downward to the said stopplates. The drums c are mounted upon radially disposed shafts 0 mounted as illustrated in Fig. 4. It will thus be evident that by rotating the shafts c it will be possible to raise the discharge doors and lower the corresponding stop-plates, and that these mo tions can be accomplished without the expenditure of great force as the two parts substantially counter-balance each other. The rope connecting the stop-plate and discharge door is so arranged that when the door is closed the stop-plate will be raised a suflicient distance above the slide-way to permit the passage of the largest articles which the chute will accommodate beneath it. When the discharge door is raised the stop-plate will be lowered into the path of articles moving along the slide-way so that any article which passes down the slide-way will be arrested by the stop-plate and by it deflected toward the opening covered by the discharge door. Intake doors D through which articles can be inserted into the conveyer, are provided below the discharge doors at each story, and these doors are so disposed above the plane of the slide-way at the points at which they are situated'as to make it impos sible for packages to pass outward through the intake doors.

In order to provide means by which the various discharge doors can be opened from the various floors above them respectively, each of the shafts c is provided at its outer end with a sheave 6 about which run ro es E, E which extend in loops above the ent of the conveyer and are supported by sheaves e 6 By manipulating the rope E the lower of the two intermediate doors can be operated from either of the floors above it and by manipulating the rope E the upper of the two intermediate doors can be 0 erated from the upper floor of the building.

It is obviously desirable to provide means wherebythe fact that any discharge door is open will be indicated to the floors above said discharge door in order that packages j pay not inadvertently be sent to the wrong oor.

It will be understood that normally the chute is in such condition that packages deposited in it will reach the shipping room in the basement and in the absence of some variable signal any person using the chute will naturally presume that it is so set.

Should the chute, however, be set to discharge say at the lower intermediate floor this fact should be plainly indicated at the floors above although such indication is not necessary at the lower intermediate floor and should the chute be set to discharge at the upper intermediate floor this fact should be indicated at the upper floor but not necessarily at the lower intermediate floor or at the upper intermediate floor where the door is open for from both these floors goods can be transmitted to the shipping-room in the ordinary way. In order to provide this indicating or signaling system the sheaves 6 e are mounted upon shafts F, F (Figs. 5 and 6) journaled somewhat loosely at one end so. as to be capable of limited horizontal oscillation. The opposite ends of the shafts are supported in eccentric sleeves G, G, respectively, said sleeves bearing radially projecting arms g, g, by which they can be rotated. The shafts have fixed upon them friction disks H, H which can be brought into enjoinment with fixed brake shoes h, h by horizontal oscillation of the shafts F, F. WVhen either radial arm is lowered the corresponding sleeve will be so turned as to swing the friction disk of the corresponding shaft against the shoe and when 1t is raised the shaft will be swung away to 21. released position.

Solenoids I, I are provided by which these radially projecting arms may be operated, the solenoid I being arranged to release the brake to permit the rope E to be manipulated, the solenoid I being arranged to permit the manipulating of the rope E These solenoids are arranged in circuits J, J which are illustrated diagrammatically in Fig. 1. 'A. trunk circuit or line K is provided and switches J are arranged at the'upper and upper intermediate floors whereby current from the supply circuit K, can be admitted to the circuit J and a switch j is similarly provided at the upper floor for admitting current to the circult J In addition to the solenoids the circuit J and J includes lamps and buzzers or other audible signals j j The said signal 1' being arranged at the upper and upper intermediate floors and the signal j at the upper floor only. Thus it will be seen that under ordinary conditions the discharge doors cannot be operated. When it is desired to open one of the said discharge doors for the purpose of ejecting packages at any floor above the basement, the operator at any higher floor closes the switch in the corresponding circuit. This releases the rope controlling said door and simultaneously turns on the light and sounds the audible signal at each floor above the floor Where the door to be operated is located. The operator can then and only then operate the discharge door and the continued sounding of the signal will remind him to return the door to its original position as soon as he has finished. using the chute. The presence of the light and the sounding of the audible signal will be a warning to operators at other floors that the chute is set to discharge at a floor other than the lowest and will also indicate at which floor it is set to discharge.

I realize that considerable variation is possible in the details of the construction herein set forth. This is particularly true of the electrical circuit and brake mechanism, for these are capable of almost endless variation without departing from the spirit of my invention.

It will be noticed that the construction herein described provides a chute having all the desired capacities of operation in that it can be set to discharge at any desired floor and when so set will warn those located at floors above not only that it is set to discharge at a lower floor but at which floor it is set to discharge. Furthermore the means by which the conveyer is arranged to discharge at intermediate floors is particularly desirable and effective. The effectiveness of this arrangement is enhanced by the fact that the pitch of the spiral slide-Way is decreased at the points of exit. A package moving down the chute at high velocity is checked in its descent just before it reaches any discharge door, but its inertia keeps it in motion so that it is thrown with considerable force against the outer wall of the conveyer. In this way its progress is still further arrested and it is given an outward or centrifugal tendency which causes it readily to leave the chute through the discharge door when opened. Thus the shock which the package sustains in bringing up against the is minimized and it may even be possible to dispense with the stop-plate altogether with this arrangement the sto -plate being intended largely as a precaution to revent the package frompassing the door. y arranging the stopates and discharge doors so that each acts as a counter-balance for the other the amount of force required to operate the doors is greatly decreased and by arranging the operating rope or cable double as illustrated no counter-balance for the rope is necessary so that all the force necessaryis simply that required to overcome the inertia and friction of the parts.

I realize that considerable variation is possible in the details of construction of my improved device, without departing from the spirit of my invention and I do not intend therefore to limit myself to the specific form herein shown and described.

What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is- 1. A device of the classdescribed having an outer casing and a discharge door therein and a spiral slide-way within the outer casing having a decreased pitch as it approaches said discharge door.

2. In a device of the class described the combination with an outer casing and a movable discharge door therein of a spiral slidestop-plate way having a decreased pitch as it approaches such discharge door.

3. The combination with an outer casing having a discharge door therein and a spiral slide-way having a decreased pitch as it approaches said discharge door of means of controlling the door from afloor above the floor at which it is located.

4. The combination with an outer casing having a discharge door therein and a spiral slide-way within the casing havin a decreased pitch as it approaches the discharge door; of a movable stop located at the lower lateral edge of the discharge door and means for interposing the stop in the path of articles upon the slide-way.

5. The combination with an outer casing having a discharge door; of a slide-way therein having a decreased pitch as it approaches the discharge door; a stop adapted to be interposed in the path of articles upon the slide-way, a means for opening the dis charge door and simultaneously interposing the stop in the path of said articles.

6. The combination with an outer casing having a discharge door therein and a slideway having decreased pitch as it approaches the discharge door; of a vertically movable stop at the lower lateral edge of said discharge door and means controllable from a floor above the discharge door for simultaneously opening the door and interposing the stop in the path of articles upon the slideway.

7. The combination with an outer casing having a discharge door therein; of a spiral slide-way within the casing; a stop-plate vertically movable at the lower lateral edge of the discharge door and means for simultaneously moving said discharge door and stop in opposite directions.

8. The combination with an outer casing of a spiral slide-way therein and a discharge door in said outer casing of a stop at the lower lateral edge of said discharge and means for lowerin ously raising said door.

9. The combination with an outer casing having a discharge openin controlled by a discharge door and a spira slide within the casing; of a stop arranged at the lower lateral edge of said door and vertically movable and means of connection between said discharge door and stop whereby the same can be oppositely moved and whereby the same counter-balance each other.

10. The combination with an outer casing having a discharge door; of a spiral slide-way within the casing and means for controlling the door from floors above it and a signaling device located at the floors above the dis charge door and arranged to indicate the position of said discharge door.

11. The combination with an outer casing having a discharge door; of a spiral slide-way said stop and simultanetherein, a device for normally preventing the r cate the position of the operation of said discharge door, means for releasing the said discharge door to prevent its operation, and a signaling device at the floors above the discharge door arranged to be operated with said releasing means.

12. The combination with an outer casin having a discharge door therein and a spiraI slide-Way within the casing of means for normally preventing the operation of the discharge door, electrically controlled means for releasing said device to permit the operation of the discharge door and signaling means in the electric circuit thereof to indidischarge door.

13. In a device of the class described the I l combination with an outer casing having an opening and a slide-way within the casing;

01' a discharge door controlling the opening, a radially arranged vertically movable stopplate at the lower lateral edge of the opening, a rope connecting the discharge door and stop plate whereby they counterbalance I within the casing; of a discharge door controlling the o ening, a guided stop-plate vertically movable at the lower lateral edge of the opening, a shaft having a drum thereon, a rope connecting the discharge door and said stop-plate and passing over the drum u on said shaft whereby the door and stopp ate counterbalance each other and are oth movable by rotation of the shaft means controllable from the floor above said discharge door for rotating said shaft to move the door and stop-plate.

GEORGE P. WISDOM.

and 

